Majority of oilsands ownership and profits are foreign, says analysis

Mike De Souza, Postmedia News05.10.2012

More than two-thirds of all oilsands production in Canada is owned by foreign entities, sending a majority of the industry's profits out of the country, says a new analysis released Thursday by a British Columbia-based conservation group.

OTTAWA — More than two-thirds of all oilsands production in Canada is owned by foreign entities, sending a majority of the industry's profits out of the country, says a new analysis released Thursday by a British Columbia-based conservation group.

The research by Forest Ethics Advocacy was based on an analysis of shareholder information in January 2012 from Bloomberg Professional of more than a dozen companies, including nine with headquarters in Canada, and six with their head offices in other countries. It found 71 per cent of the ownership of oilsands production was foreign, while the foreign-based companies controlled 24.2 per cent of the sector's production.

"Some notably Canadian oil companies, such as Suncor, Canadian Oil Sands and Husky, are predominantly owned by non-Canadians," said the report. "The data also shows us that more than half of Canada's oil and gas revenue goes to foreign entities."

At least one oilsands producer, MEG Energy, said the conservation group's research was "just plain wrong," estimating that less than 60 per cent of the company was held by non-Canadian shareholders, as opposed to the Forest Ethics estimate of 89.1 per cent.

The environmental group said it supports foreign investment in Canada, but wanted to see more laws and regulations to ensure that companies do not leave Canadians with excessive environmental risks while the foreign owners are reaping the profits.

"The bottom line is Canada's policies need to be designed for Canadians, not just for big oil and foreign investors," said Tzeporah Berman, co-founder of Forest Ethics. "Our data today is an important part of the conversation around who is benefiting from this dramatic push and expansion."

But Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, noted that companies pay billions of dollars in royalties, not including about $766 billion in estimated taxes to be collected by federal and provincial governments over the next 25 years.

"Furthermore, employment doesn't occur in a vacuum," Davies said, in response to the report. "It's fine for ForestEthics to point to the producing sector and say employment is relatively small. However, that ignores the over half a million Canadians that depend on the oil and gas industry for their employment."

The analysis, which also used production data in January from Oilsands Review — a publication that focuses on unconventional oil issues — found $11.7 billion of investments in oilsands production between 2007 and 2011 were coming from China, making up about 16 per cent of the total investments of $73.6 billion in that time period.

Alberta's oilsands sector has become a target of many well-organized environmental campaigns because it requires huge amounts of land, water and energy to extract heavy oil from the natural bitumen deposits that are considered to make up one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government responded by launching an international lobbying and marketing campaign, in partnership with industry and the Alberta government, to promote the oilsands industry abroad and counter foreign environmental policies that target the sector's footprint on the atmosphere.

Internal federal documents have concluded oilsands production is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

Scientists and governments from around the world say all sources of the heat-trapping emissions must be dramatically reduced to avoid potentially irreversible changes to the planet's ecosystems, atmosphere and the global economy from climate change.

Meantime, the Canadian Energy Research Institute, a government-funded think-tank, has estimated that the oilsands sector is responsible for more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada, and will contribute more than $1.7 trillion to the country's economy over the next 25 years. But the institute's research has been challenged by some economists, including former Insurance Corporation of British Columbia president Robyn Allan, who have argued this analysis doesn't adequately consider the impact of fluctuations of the Canadian dollar or oil prices, among other factors.

Forest Ethics Advocacy said that its own analysis on ownership demonstrates that recent efforts by Harper's government to weaken Canada's environmental protection laws and speed up approval of industrial projects are not in the national interest.

"Since the beginning of the year, our federal government has either cut or gutted every piece of environmental legislation designed to protect our land, air, and water while aggressively pushing for the expansion of the tarsands and the building of new pipelines, such as the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and supertanker project," concluded the report. "Harper has claimed to do this in the name of Canada's national interest while attacking anyone who disagrees."

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver dismissed the report, noting that apart from the economic benefits, the foreign ownership "control" of the Canadian oil industry was about 35 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

"We will continue to promote the oilsands as a safe secure and socially and environmentally responsible alternative source of energy for the world," Oliver said in a statement, emailed to Postmedia News.

Berman also criticized the federal government for attacking charities which receive a small fraction of their funding — less than five per cent — from foreign sources, noting many environmental groups have succeeded in pushing government policies to reduce acid and clean up the Great Lakes.

Meantime, she noted that an estimated two million Canadians are now employed at registered Canadian charities.

Majority of oilsands ownership and profits are foreign, says analysis

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